The Syntopicon

“So far from it being a substitute for living,

Philosophy is a kind of super-living.”

-- Jose Ortega y Gasset (1883-1955)

“The philosopher in society witnesses to the supreme dignity of thought; he points to what is eternal in man, and stimulates our thirst for pure knowledge and disinterested knowledge.”

– Jacques Maritain (1882-1973)

MR. HARRIS, M.Ed.

Room #: CT 210

Website: www.neisd.net/Domain/4862

E-mail: sharri@neisd.net

Mission Statement:

“To think with clarity,

To speak with precision, and

To call things by their right names.”

“The liberally educated person is one who is able to resist the easy and preferred answers, not because he is obstinate but because he knows others worthy of consideration.” – Allan Bloom (1930-1992)

SYNTOPICONS

Syntopicons will be our main exercise in writing. Some think that since they can argue well orally, that they don’t need to learn to write well. These people do not argue as well as they think. Talking is not the same as writing, and writing is an exercise in thinking. If you cannot write well, you cannot think well -- let alone speak well.

Syntopicon topics come from The Great Books series. In it are listed 175 of the ideas that are the core of civil society. Referenced are what the greatest minds have had to say regarding those topics. You will add to this “conversation of minds” by telling us what you think about the topics.

Your paper must contain two quotes from famous people that support your theme.

Style: APA format

· Times New Roman typeface; 12 pt. font

· Double-spaced

· The paper is limited to one typed page – no more, no less.

· Your cover sheet will have your name, date, class period, and an original title.

*** Buy a stapler for your home. Do not expect there to be time for thirty students to assemble and staple their papers – WORK IS COLLECTED IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE TARDY BELL RINGS.

Mr. Harris’ e-mail: sharri@neisd.net

WRITING SYNTOPICONS

1. Topic: Pick the topic in which you are most interested or about which you know the most.

2. Word Web: May be a formal outline or a word web. You MUST brainstorm on paper. “A writer… doesn’t know what he is saying,” writes Thomas Williams, “until he sees it on the page.” Organizes thoughts, identifies theme, and sets proof and conclusion. Place quotes at the bottom of the word web page. “How can I know what I think,” writes E.M. Forster, “till I see what I say?”

3. Thesis: is what you want to argue or say about the topic. Thesis must be developed strongly at the outset of your paper, not gradually realized through the course of your paper. Your thesis serves the same function as does the steel skeleton of a skyscraper: it determines the use, placement and distribution of all your persuasion, logic and evidence. Hemingway advised, “All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence you know.”

4. Theme: A short phrase that captures the idea you want to remain in the mind of the reader when they finish your paper. It is your thesis condensed to its essence. This is the mark by which you will judge all the support and evidence in your paper – do they support your theme?

5. Rough Draft/Revision: Ideas in action. Two-pages handwritten, shows many editing changes. Do not be afraid to thrash your paper with editing changes; if you don’t, it won’t be any good. Writing is a process, and good writing comes from exhausting editing. Columnist James J. Kilpatrick writes, “Good spelling… is a kind of good manners. We ought never to offend our readers unintentionally. When we write of a ‘Caribben cruse’ we burp at the supper table; and when we write of Dr. Jekyll and ‘Mr. Hide’ we spill ignorance on our shirt.” For good writers, six to seven edits are normal. Some may need more.Higher Order Concerns Lower Order ConcernsThesis/ThemeSentence structureAudience/PurposePunctuationOrganizationLexiconDevelopmentTransitions

6. Cover Sheet: Will be typed, with name, date, class period, teacher’s name, and an original title for your paper.

7. Final Draft: Will be only ONE PAGE, typed in black ink, double spaced, Twelve point font.

8. Assembly Order: Cover SheetFinal typed draftAny typed rough draftsHandwritten theme/thesis paragraphOutline/Word Web

ON WRITING WELL(Excerpted from William Zinnser’s aptly titled masterpiece, except where otherwise quoted, including Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury, and Writing Changes Everything, edited by Deborah Brodie.)

Americans are unwilling to go out on a limb. A generation ago our leaders told us where they stood and what they believed. Today they perform strenuous verbal feats to escape that fate. Watch them wiggle through TV interviews without committing themselves… Leaders who bob and weave like aging boxers don’t inspire confidence – or deserve it. The same is true of writers. Sell yourself, and your subject will exert it’s own appeal. Believe in your own opinions. Writing is an act of ego, and you might as well admit it. Use its energy to keep yourself going.

Unity [in ideas and structure] is the anchor of good writing… Unity not only keeps the reader from straggling off in all directions, it satisfies the readers’ subconscious need for order and reassures them that all is well at the helm.

On Inspiration

“The great composer does not set to work because he is inspired, but becomes inspired because he is working. Beethoven, Wagner, Bach and Mozart settled down day after day to the job in hand with as much regularity as an accountant settles down each day to his figures. They didn’t waste time waiting for inspiration.” – Ernest Newman

On Titles

“A good title is not a label, but a lure.” – Hayes B. Jacobs

“A good title should be like a good metaphor; it should intrigue without being too baffling or too obvious.” – Walker Percy

Mediocre titles from the San Antonio Express News on Nov. 9, 2009:

· “Man shot while playing with loaded pistol”

· “Man fatally shot on East Side”

· “Woman dies after jumping from truck.”

· “Man found dead in car identified”

· “Man dies in crash on motorcycle.”

·

“Everyone needs an editor.” – Tim Foote, commenting in Time magazine on the fact that Hitler’s original title for Mein Kampf (My Struggle) was Four-and-a-Half Years of Struggle against Lies, Stupidity, and Cowardice.

Examples:

Working Title: The Fire Man Final Title: Fahrenheit 451

Working Title: The Strike Final Title: Atlas Shrugged

ON OPENING LINES

“Always grab the reader by the throat in the first paragraph, sink your thumbs into his windpipe in the second, and hold him against the wall until the tag line.” – Paul O’Neil

I urge you not to count on the reader to stick around. Readers want to know – very soon – what’s in it for them… It must cajole them with freshness, or novelty, or paradox, or humor, or surprise, or with an unusual idea, or an interesting fact, or a question…

Next, the lead must do some real work. It must provide hard details that tell the reader why the piece was written and why he ought to read it, but don’t dwell on the reason. Coax the reader a little more; keep him inquisitive.

Continue to build. Every paragraph should amplify the one that preceded it. Give more thought to adding solid detail and less to entertaining the reader. But take special care with the last sentence of each paragraph – it’s the crucial springboard to the next paragraph. Try to give that sentence an extra twist of humor or surprise… Make the reader smile and you’ve got him for at least one more paragraph.

“Too often I wait for the sentence to finish taking shape in my mind before setting it down. It is better to seize it by the end that offers itself, head or foot, though not knowing the rest, then pull: the rest will follow along.” – Andre Gide

“The first line of a poem is a hawk which won’t let go of its prey.” – Bariel Preil

“Cross out every sentence until you come to one you cannot do without. That is your beginning.” – Gary Provost

“Writing a novel is like building a wall brick by brick; only amateurs believe in inspiration.”—Frank Yerby

“Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.” -- Kurt Vonnegut

ON ENDINGS

[When you conclude with] “In sum it can be noted that…” Or a question that asks, “What insights, then, have we been able to glean from…?” These are signals that you are about to repeat in compressed form what you have already said in detail. The reader’s interest begins to falter; the tension you have built begins to sag… They notice what you are doing and are how bored you are by it. They feel the stirring of resentment... They quit.

The first sentence of a paragraph grows out of the last sentence of the previous paragraphs; the reader is given no chance to squirm away.

The positive reason for ending well is that good last sentence – or last paragraph – is a joy in itself. It gives the reader a lift, and it lingers when the article is over… The perfect ending should give your readers a lift, and it lingers when the article is over… The perfect ending should take your readers slightly by surprise and yet seem exactly right.

[Endings]… bring the story full circle – to strike at the end an echo of a note that was sounded at the beginning. It gratifies my sense of symmetry, and it also pleases the reader, completing with it resonance the journey we set out on together… But what usually works best is a quotation. Go back through your notes to find some remark that has a sense of finality, or that’s funny, or that adds an unexpected closing detail.

What is crucial… is to express your opinion firmly. Don’t cancel its strength with last-minute evasions and escapes. The most boring sentence in the daily newspaper is the last sentence of the editorial, which says “ It is too early to tell whether the new policy will work” or “The effectiveness of the decision remains to be seen.” If it’s too early to tell, don’t bother us with it, and as for what remains to be seen, everything remains to be seen. Take your stand with conviction.

ON EDITING

Writing is like a good watch – it should run smoothly and have no extra parts…. think of it [rewriting] as a gift. You won’t write well until you understand that writing is an evolving process, not a product.

Read your article aloud from beginning to end, always remembering where you left the reader into the previous sentence… With every small refinement I feel that I’m coming nearer to where I would like to arrive, and when I finally get there I know it was the rewriting, not the writing, that won the game.

[Many] are prisoners of the notion that a simple style reflects a simple mind. Actually a simple style is the result of hard work and hard thinking; a muddled style reflects a muddled thinker or a person too arrogant, or too dumb, or too lazy to organize his thoughts… If what you write is ornate, or pompous, or fuzzy, that’s how you’ll be perceived.

· “Vigorous writing is concise. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail, but that every word tells.” -- William Strunk

· Inspiration usually comes during work, rather than before it. – Madeleine L’Engle

· “There are days when the result is so bad that no fewer than five revisions are required. In contrast, when I am greatly inspired, only four revisions are needed.” --John Kenneth Galbraith

· “It is always better to give a little less than the reader wants, than more.” --Maxwell Perkins

· “I hate to write; I like to revise. And the amount of revision I do is terrific. I like to get the first draft out of my system. That’s the hardest thing for me.” --Malcolm Cowley

· “You have to allow yourself the liberty of writing poorly. You have to get the bulk of it done, and then you start to redefine it. You have to put down less than marvelous material just to keep going to whatever you think the end is going to be—which may be something else altogether by the time you get there.” --Larry Gelbart

· “If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.” --George Orwell

· “I always try to write on the principle of the iceberg. There are seven-eights of it underwater for every part that shows.” --Ernest Hemingway

· “Only God gets it right the first time.” --Stephen King

ON FRESHNESS & ELOQUENCE

Clichés are the enemy of taste… a woman with taste in clothes delights us with her ability to turn out in combination that’s not only stylish and surprising, but exactly right. She knows what works and what doesn’t.

Freshness is curtailed. Taste chooses words that have surprise, strength and precision… A writer with an ear for language will reach for those very clichés, thinking he will enrich his thoughts with currency that is, as he would put it, tried and true.

Writing what will endure tends to consist of words that are short and strong; works that sedate are words of three, four and five syllables, mostly of Latin origin, many of them ending in “ion” and embodying a vague concept.

Eloquence invites us to bring some parts of ourselves to the transaction … What moves us to writing … is the sound of voices far older than the narrator’s, talking in cadences that are more than ordinarily rich.

ON STYLE

· “Don’t say it is delightful; make us say ‘delightful’ when we’ve read the description. You see, all those words (horrifying, wonderful, hideous, exquisite) are only like saying to your readers ‘Please will you do my job for me’” – C.S. Lewis

· “You do not create style. You work, and develop yourself; your style is an emanation from your own being.” -- Katherine Anne Porter

· There’s an old adage in writing: “Don’t tell, but show.” … Writing is not psychology. We do not talk “about” feelings. Instead the writer feels and through her words awakens those feelings in the reader. The writer takes the reader’s hand and guides him through the valley of sorrow and joy without ever having to mention those words. – Natalie Goldberg

· We build tensions toward laughter, then give permission, and laughter comes. We build tensions toward sorrow, and at last say cry, and hope to see our audience in tears….We build tensions of love…and allow that fruition n the mind of the audience. We build tensions…toward sickness, and then, if we are good enough, talented enough, observant enough, allow our audiences to be sick. Each tension, it follows, aesthetically as well as practically, must be built which remains unreleased. Without this, any art ends incomplete, halfway to its goal. And in real life, as we know, the failure to relax a particular tension can lead to madness. – Ray Bradbury

· “Don’t use words too big for the subject. Don’t say ‘indefinitely’ when you mean ‘very’; otherwise you’ll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.” -- C.S. Lewis

· “Prose is architecture, not decoration.” -- Ernest Hemingway

· “The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and lightning-bug.” -- Mark Twain

· “Usually the receipt for a bestseller is to give people what they want. My challenge is and was: Give them what they do not expect. Be severe with them. The world of media is full of easy answers, wash-and-wear philosophies, instant ecstasies, what-me-worry Epiphanies. Probably readers want a little more.” --Umberto Eco

· “My purpose is to entertain myself first and others secondly.” --John D. MacDonald

· “In controversy you can use timing, a look, in reflection, pauses. But on the page all you have is commas, dashes, and the amount of syllables in a word. When I write I read everything out loud to hear the right rhythm.” -- Fran Lebowitz

· No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise for the writer, no surprise for the reader. – Robert Frost

Ayn Rand, The Art of Nonfiction

Edit:

1. Structure

2. Clarity of thought & content

3. Stylistic trimming

Writing is literally only the skill of putting down on paper a clear thought, in clear terms. Everything else, such as drama or ‘jazziness,’ is merely the trimmings.

Delimit subject and theme. Demonstrate.

Ask:

What do I want to write about?

What do I want to say about the subject?

What is the element of novelty in my theme?

What can you omit?

What must you inform them of?

Assume reader possesses full rationality.

Outline:

1. Theme (the concept of an essence – and the ability to distinguish essentials from details)

2. Causality (the ability to establish cause-and-effect relations)

Do not try thinking and writing at the same time. (This is the purpose of the outline) Never start with a question mark in mind.

I find the best way to write is not sentence by sentence, but sequence by sequence.

DOES SPELLING REALLY MATTER?

Despite the nonsensical notion taught in too many schools that it doesn’t, spelling matters. Despite the abdication of too many teachers who don’t grade it, spelling matters. Spelling is part of a system of encoding and decoding thoughts that must be standardized for communication to be clear.

“The spelling of the vast majority of English words,” according to Knowles, “was fixed in 1755; apart from the simplification of the final in musick, and the American innovations, there have been no systematic changes in spelling.”

Marilyn vos Savant, the world’s highest recorded IQ, notes:

Poor spelling ability has no apparent relationship to general intelligence. However, education, intelligence, and desire must have a relationship to excellent spelling ability. Top spellers are the most organized, the average spellers were in the middle, and the bottom spellers were the least organized. In other words, organization paralleled spelling ability closest of all. A lack of organization drags a speller down. Spelling also appears to be related to personality traits and habits.

Excellent spelling ability nearly always indicates high intelligence; however, high intelligence doesn’t necessarily produce excellent spelling ability. Likewise, low intelligence nearly always produces poor spelling ability; however, poor spelling ability doesn’t necessarily indicate low intelligence.

The good news? While some are naturally good at spelling is largely an acquired skill, not an inherent aptitude. Bad spellers rely almost exclusively on visual memory of a word. Excellent spellers rely on:

1. phonetic awareness

2. visual memory

3. writing or saying words aloud

4. regular use of the dictionary.

“Your life,” wrote Arthur Scargill, “depends on your power to master words.” “Inaccurate spelling,” writes David Moseley, “triggers a heightened sensitivity to other weaknesses in composition.” Good spelling is invisible.

MISCELLANEOUS

· [Writing]…reminds us that we are alive and that it is a gift and a privilege, not a right.. We must earn life once it has been awarded us. Life asks for rewards back because it has favored us with animation.

· …it is the personal observation, the odd fancy, the strange conceit, that pays off.

· “The faster I write the better my output. If I’m going slow I’m in trouble. It means I’m pushing the words instead of being pulled by them.” – Raymond Chandler

· A story is: The king died, the queen died. A plot is: The king died, the queen died of grief.

· “Get your character in trouble in the first sentence and out of trouble in the last sentence.” – Barthe DeClements

· “Content without style is propaganda or adolescence. Style without content is decadence.” – Rita Mae Brown

· “I know my stuff all looks like it was rattled off in 23 seconds, but every word is a struggle – every sentence is like pangs of birth. The Cat in the Hat ended up taking well over a year.” --Dr. Suess

· “Quantity comes from experience. From experience alone can quality come.”

-- Ray Bradbury

ARISTOTLE’S RHETORIC Rhetoric is the art of speaking and writing effectively.

Chapter 1 (1404a)

Style. It is not enough to know what to say; we must also say it in the right way….As to the place of style: the right thing in speaking really is that we should fight our case with no help beyond the bare facts; and yet the arts of language cannot help having a small but real importance, whatever it is we have to expound to others.

Chapter 2 (1404b, 1405a, 1405b)

Still, in the main, the same definition and methods apply alike to poetical and to prose style. Style, to be good, must be clear; it must also be appropriate, avoiding both meanness (averageness) and excess of dignity. How these qualities may be attained. Rare, compound, and invented words must be used sparingly in prose; in which, over and above the regular and proper terms for things, metaphorical terms only can be used with advantage, and even these need care.

Chapter 3 (1406a, 1406b)

Four faults of prose style, with illustrative examples: (1) misuse of compound words; (2) employment of strange words; (3) long, unseasonable, or frequent epithets; (4) inappropriate metaphors.

Chapter 4 (1407a)

The simile is a full-blown metaphor. Similes are useful in prose as well as in verse; but they must not be used often, since they are of the nature of poetry.

Chapter 5 (1407b)

The foundation of good style is correctness of language, which is discussed under five heads: (1) right use of connecting words; (2) use of special, and not vague general, terms; (3) avoidance of ambiguity; (4) observance of gender; (5) correct indication of grammatical number. A composition should be easy to read and therefore easy to deliver; it should avoid (1) uncertainties as to punctuation….

Chapter 6 (1408a)

Impressiveness of style. Six heads: (1) the use of a description instead of a simple name; (2) metaphors and epithets; (3) plural for singular number; (4) repetition of the article; (5) connecting words; (6) description by means of negation.

Chapter 7 (1408b)

Appropriateness. An appropriate style will adapt itself to (1) the emotions of the hearers, (2) the character of the speaker, (3) the nature of the subject. Tact and judgment are needed in all varieties of oratory.

Chapter 8 (1409a)

Prose rhythm. The form of the language should not be metrical, nor, on the other hand, without any rhythm at all. Of the various possible rhythms, the heroic is too grand, the iambic too ordinary, and the trochaic too like a riotous dance. The best rhythm for prose is the paean, since from this alone no definite meter arises.

Chapter 10 (1411a, 1411b)

Smart and popular sayings. Three chief features of these clever, pointed sayings are: (1) antithesis, (2) metaphor, and (3) actuality or vividness (i.e. the power of "setting the scene before our eyes").

Chapter 11 (1412a, 1412b, 1413a, 1413b)

The graphic power of "setting things before the eyes" implies the use of expressions that represent objects as in a state of activity: Homer often gives metaphorical life to lifeless things in this fashion. A touch of surprise also contributes to liveliness. People feel they have learnt something; hence the pleasure given by apophthegms, riddles, and puns. Similes, proverbs, and hyperboles also find a place here, being related to metaphors.

Chapter 12 (1414a)

Each kind of rhetoric has its own appropriate style. The style of written prose is not that of spoken oratory, nor are those of political and forensic speaking the same. The written style is the more finished: the spoken better admits of dramatic delivery -- alike the kind of oratory that reflects character and the kind that stirs emotion. The style of oratory addressed to public assemblies resembles scene-painting. In the one and the other, high finish in detail is superfluous and seems better away. The forensic style is more highly finished. Ceremonial oratory is the most literary, for it is meant to be read; and next to it forensic oratory. To analyze style still further, and add that it must be agreeable or magnificent, is useless; for why should it have these traits any more than "restraint," "liberality," or any other moral excellence?

Chapter 13 (1414b)

(B) Arrangement. A speech has two essential parts: statement and proof. To these may be added introduction and epilogue.

Chapter 14 (1415a, 1415b, 1416a)

The most essential function and distinctive property of the introduction is to indicate the aim of the speech. An introduction may (1) excite or ally prejudice; (2) exalt or depreciate. In a political speech an introduction is seldom found, for the subject is usually familiar to the audience.

Chapter 15 (1416b)

Prejudice. The various lines of argument suitable for exciting or allaying prejudice.

Chapter 16 (1417a, 1417b)

Narration. (1) In ceremonial oratory, narration should, as a rule, not be continuous but intermittent: variety is pleasant, and the facts in a celebrity's praise are usually well known. (2) In forensic oratory, the current rule that the narration should be rapid is wrong: rightness consists neither in rapidity nor in conciseness, but in the happy mean. The defendant will make less use of narration than the plaintiff. (3) In political oratory there is least opening for narration; nobody can narrate what has not yet happened. If there is narration at all, it will be of past events, the recollection of which will help the hearers to make better plans for the future. Or it may be employed to attack some one's character, or to eulogize him.

Chapter 17 (1418a, 1418b)

Arguments. The duty of the Arguments is to attempt conclusive proofs. Argument by "example" is highly suitable for political oratory, argument by "enthymeme" [three part deductive argument with an assumed premise] better suits forensic. Enthymemes should not be used in unbroken succession; they should be interspersed with other matter. "If you have proofs to bring forward, bring them forward, and your moral discourse as well; if you have no enthymemes, then fall back upon moral discourse: after all, it is more fitting for a good man to display himself as an honest fellow than as a subtle reasoner." Hints as to the order in which arguments should be presented. As to character: you cannot well say complimentary things about yourself or abusive things about another, but you can put such remarks into the mouths of some third person.

Chapter 18 (1419a, 1419b)

Interrogation and Jests. The best moment to employ interrogation is when your opponent has so answered one question that the putting of just one more lands him in absurdity. In replying to questions, you must meet them, if they are ambiguous, by drawing reasonable distinctions, not by a curt answer.-- Jests are supposed to be of some service in controversy. Gorgias said that you should kill your opponents' earnestness with jesting and their jesting with earnestness; in which he was right. Jest have been classified in the Poetics. "Some are becoming to gentlemen, others are not; see that you choose such as become you. Irony better befits a gentleman than buffoonery; the ironical man jokes to amuse himself, the buffoon to amuse other people."

Chapter 19 (1420a, 1420b)

Epilogue (Peroration, Conclusion). This has four parts. You must (1) make the audience well disposed towards yourself and ill disposed towards your opponent, (2) magnify or minimize the leading facts, (3) excite the required kind of emotion in your hearers, and (4) refresh their memories by means of a recapitulation. -- In your closing words you may dispense with conjunctions, and thereby mark the difference between the oration and the peroration: "I have done. You have heard me. The facts are before you. I ask for your judgment."

H.P. Lovecraft on Style

No aspiring author should content himself with a mere acquisition of technical rules. … All attempts at gaining literary polish must begin with judicious reading, and the learner must never cease to hold this phase uppermost. In many cases, the usage of good authors will be found a more effective guide than any amount of precept. A page of Addison or of Irving will teach more of style than a whole manual of rules, whilst a story of Poe’s will impress upon the mind a more vivid notion of powerful and correct description and narration than will ten dry chapters of a bulky textbook.

1. Erroneous plurals of nouns, as vallies or echos.

2. Barbarous compound nouns, as viewpoint or upkeep.

3. Erroneous case of pronouns, as whom for who, and vice versa, or phrases like “between you and I,” or “Let we who are loyal, act promptly.”

4. Use of nouns for verbs, as “he motored to Boston,” or “he voiced a protest.”

5. Errors in moods and tenses of verbs, as “If I was he, I should do otherwise,” or “He said the earth was round.”

6. The split infinitive, as “to calmly glide.”

7. False verb-forms, as “I pled with him.”

8. Use of like for as, as “I strive to write like Pope wrote.”

9. Misuse of prepositions, as “The gift was bestowed to an unworthy object,” or “The gold was divided between the five men.”

10. Errors of taste, including vulgarisms, pompousness, repetition, vagueness, ambiguousness, colloquialism, bathos, bombast, pleonasm, tautology, harshness, mixed metaphor, and every sort of rhetorical awkwardness.

Zadie Smith’s (7 of) 10 rules of writing

1. When still a child, make sure you read a lot of books. Spend more time doing this than anything else.

2. When an adult, try to read your own work as a stranger would read it, or even better, as an enemy would.

3. Leave a decent space of time between writing something and editing it.

4. Avoid cliques, gangs, groups. The presence of a crowd won’t make your writing any better than it is.

5. Work on a computer that is disconnected from the internet.

6. Protect the time and space in which you write. Keep everybody away from it, even the people who are most important to you.

7. Don’t confuse honors with achievement.

David Oglivy’s “(8 of) 10 no Bullsh*t tips”

Good writing is not a natural gift. You have to learn to write well. Here are 10 hints:

1. Write the way you talk. Naturally.

2. Use short words, short sentences and short paragraphs.

3. Never use jargon words like reconceptualize, demassification, attitudinally, judgmentally. They are hallmarks of a pretentious ass.

4. Never write more than two pages on any subject.

5. Check your quotations.

6. Never send a letter or a memo on the day you write it. Read it aloud the next morning — and then edit it.

7. If it is something important, get a colleague to improve it.

8. Before you send your letter or your memo, make sure it is crystal clear what you want the recipient to do.

Henry Miller’s (6 of) 11 commandments

1. Work on one thing at a time until finished.

2. Don’t be nervous. Work calmly, joyously, recklessly on whatever is in hand.

3. Work according to Program and not according to mood. Stop at the appointed time!

4. When you can’t create you can work.

5. Cement a little every day, rather than add new fertilizers.

6. Discard the Program when you feel like it—but go back to it next day. Concentrate. Narrow down. Exclude.

John Steinbeck

1. Write freely and as rapidly as possible and throw the whole thing on paper. Never correct or rewrite until the whole thing is down. Rewrite in process is usually found to be an excuse for not going on. It also interferes with flow and rhythm which can only come from a kind of unconscious association with the material.

2. Forget your generalized audience. In the first place, the nameless, faceless audience will scare you to death and in the second place, unlike the theater, it doesn’t exist. In writing, your audience is one single reader. I have found that sometimes it helps to pick out one person—a real person you know, or an imagined person and write to that one.

3. If a scene or a section gets the better of you and you still think you want it—bypass it and go on. When you have finished the whole you can come back to it and then you may find that the reason it gave trouble is because it didn’t belong there.

Neil Gaiman

1. Put one word after another. Find the right word, put it down.

2. Finish what you’re writing. Whatever you have to do to finish it, finish it.

3. Put it aside. Read it pretending you’ve never read it before. Show it to friends whose opinion you respect and who like the kind of thing that this is.

4. Remember: when people tell you something’s wrong or doesn’t work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong.

5. Fix it. Remember that, sooner or later, before it ever reaches perfection, you will have to let it go and move on and start to write the next thing. Perfection is like chasing the horizon. Keep moving.

6. Laugh at your own jokes.

7. The main rule of writing is that if you do it with enough assurance and confidence, you’re allowed to do whatever you like. (That may be a rule for life as well as for writing. But it’s definitely true for writing.) So write your story as it needs to be written. Write it honestly, and tell it as best you can. I’m not sure that there are any other rules. Not ones that matter.

REGARDING PRECISION1998 U.S. Government regulations on the size of holes in Swiss cheese: 15 pages1998 U.S. Government regulations on the sale of cabbage: 26,911 wordsAll of the words of Jesus, spoken: 2 hoursDeclaration of Independence: 1,322 wordsLincoln’s 2nd Inaugural Address: 701 words(505 one syllable, 122 two syllable)Bill of Rights: 463 wordsTen Commandments: 297 wordsGettysburg Address: 266 wordsWashington’s 1st Inaugural Address: 135 wordsThe Lord’s Prayer: 66 words

Brevity is the soul of wit.

Mr. Harris’ ancestral Swingline Speed Stapler #4, circa 1942

Name:Date:Period:Excelsior!

SYNTOPICON RUBRIC – JUSTIFICATIONCite examples from your paper that justify each category.

________________________________________________________________________Structure [correct order, cover sheet, proper heading, typed full page, outline works, “rough” draft, stapled neatly, introductory hook, no “dead limbs,” thesis clearly stated, conclusion concludes]

________________________________________________________________________Grammar [noun/verb agreement, homophones, compound/complex sentences]

________________________________________________________________________Style [fresh perspective, no clichés, varied vocabulary, presents original ideas, metaphors/similes, and polished style]

________________________________________________________________________Epistemology [two sources cited, quotes support thesis, developed theme]

________________________________________________________________________Soundness [theme is deductive and sound, absence of fallacies and poor logic]

“… I can accept anything, except what seems to be easiest for most people: the half-way, the almost, the just-about, the in-between. -- Dominique Francon, in Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead

EVALUATION SIDE

0 – missing in action (no attempt made to address the item)1 – very poor quality (descriptor barely or weakly addressed)2 – below average quality (descriptor addressed, but errors interfere with meaning)3 – average quality (descriptor solidly addressed)4 – excellent quality (descriptor addressed well) 5 – most triumphant! (descriptor addressed strongly; whole is greater than the sum of the parts)

THEME/THESISTheme is a bold concept, witticism, or claim that “hooks” reader.012345Thesis is clear, concise and located in the first paragraph.012345GRAMMARCorrect spelling, commas, semi-colons, colons, dashes, noun/verb agreement, homophones.012345Nice mix of simple, compound, complex sentences; no run-ons or fragments; indentation.012345STYLE/VOICEPaper presents fresh or interesting perspective, powerful examples, with no slang or clichés. 012345Style is polished and more formal than the spoken word.012345Personality (style/voice) emerges in paper012345EPISTEMOLOGYSources are properly referenced.0123451-2 quotes are used to exemplify and support the thesis.

012345

Quotations are followed by relevant explanations that serve as transitions in the theme.012345APPEARANCECover sheet is typed, visually pleasing, perhaps color; stapled neatly.

012345STRUCTUREParagraphs have proper indentations; 3-5 paragraphs, one page; 12 pt. font, Times New Roman.

012345Conclusion is a paragraph (not two lines); draws conclusions based on support offered.012345Each sentence is necessary and important in proving thesis.012345SOUNDNESSEmotion is in proper context – amplifies, not destroys, reasoning.012345Ideas stair-step and cannot be rearranged without destroying the whole; conclusion follows necessarily from the premises.012345

EVALUATION NUMBER: TOTAL (out of 80) _________ X 1.25 = __________

ORAL SYNTOPICON RUBRIC

Name: _____________________________________________ Date: _____________

Class Period: _______________ Topic: _____________________________________

Original Title: __________________________________________________________

Physical Criteria

Score

20

15

10

5

0.5

Attention grabber

Theme/thesis

Bold, witty, or intrigues. Is immediate & clear.

Is solid & engaging; present in first paragraph.

Theme is tepid. Thesis is alluded to in first two paragraphs

Mundane, cliché, or boring. Thesis is happenstance

There is no theme; thesis is unclear.

Eye contact/Posture

Diverse & Robust eye contact

Robust eye contact

Sporadic, fleeting eye contact

Rare or concentrated eye contact

Doesn’t look up from paper

Enunciation

Words spoken clearly, distinctly, & pronounced correctly.

Words spoken clearly, distinctly; most pronounced correctly.

Words spoken clearly; most pronounced correctly.

Words mostly clear, mostly correctly.

Words slurred, mumbled or otherwise mangled.

Projects voice

Commands attention. Can be heard in back & over coughs & shuffling

Can be heard in back of room.

Can be heard in most of room. Ambient noise distracts.

Can be heard in first few rows. Any noise overrides voice.

Cannot be heard in most of room.

Pacing/pitch/pauses

Pacing & pitch varied, enhance presentation. Pauses used for effect. Conclusion obvious.

Pacing or pitch voice varied, but not both. Pauses exist.

Conclusion semi-obvious.

Pacing or pitch of voice varied, but not both. Pauses lacking.

Conclusion surprising.

Pacing or pitch of voice slightly varied. Pauses lacking.

Conclusion surprising.

Pacing & pitch are consistent.

Student is racing to finish. Paper ends like words falling off a cliff.

Charisma/Enthusiasm

Warmth & charm inspire listener to engage

Confidence puts listener at ease

Comfortable with self; nervousness shows on the fringe

Flat affect; seems bored with only presentation

Distractingly nervous

Polished appearance

Professional dress; well put together

Professional dress

Business casual dress

Jeans/shorts, t-shirts.

Really? Untucked/dress code violation

Defense Criteria

Score

20

15

10

5

0.5

Uses questioner’s name

Uses name twice; asks if needed

Uses name once; asks if needed

Uses name once, at end (afterthought)

Vocally signals

Points at person

Strong explanation

Clarifies in timely fashion

Answers quickly or after thoughtful pause

Answers shortly or after thoughtful pause

Answers quickly but wrongly

Repeats question,

No attempt to answer

Formal register

Speaks in formal, academic language. Elegant.

Speaks in formal language. Civil.

Speaks a mix of formal/informal language. Decent.

Speaks mostly in slang/informal language. Rude.

Speaks almost entirely in slang; vulgarity.

Able to answer all questions

Thorough explanation

Reasonable explanation

Attempts to explain, but does not well

Confident

Civility/Style

7